


Splinters

by myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown



Category: Chouette
Genre: Detectives, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 16:18:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18854614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown/pseuds/myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown
Summary: What will our favorite cursed detectives do when Connor gets splinters in his ultrasensitive hands?





	Splinters

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by @ladyblargh's original story Choette, specifically this post: https://ladyblargh.tumblr.com/post/183226632627/ladyblargh-from-my-original-story-obviously

Connor kept looking back and forth between his partner, who was running in front of him, and the subject he was currently chasing, a witch who was flying above them. They had simply been following up on a lead when they came to the coven district- they weren’t expecting a chase scene! Not that Connor was complaining. In fact, he thought it was actually kind of fun, running through the city streets and seeing the shocked faces of the civilians as they jumped to get out of the way. Connor cracked a crooked smile and would probably have laughed when his partner jumped over a cart, leaving the shocked vendor to stare at her in shock, but he was starting to get tired and his breath was coming in gasps. Racoons were built for sprinting, Connor thought ruefully, not for marathons. Shame that this witch didn’t seem to respect that.   
Connor successfully dodged the cart and looked ahead to Eerie. He couldn’t see her face, but he knew that she was probably scowling in concentration. What he could see was her bow, which was bouncing up and down adorably as she ran. She looked up and Connor followed suit. The witch, it seemed, was getting tired and loosing altitude quickly. She was still high up, but she couldn’t clear the tops of the buildings anymore. The witch risked a look back on the gaining detectives, then veered into a narrow alley on her right. Rookie mistake, Connor thought as they followed. Alleys were his natural habitat.   
Eerie ran gracefully through the dim alley despite it being cluttered with trashcans and homeless blankets and Connor scrambled after her with just as much speed, albeit with a little less grace. There was a high, weathered wood fence dividing the alley, blocking their way. Eerie jumped, gripping the rough wood with her talons, then vaulted herself over without any problems. Connor moved to follow – jumping up, aiming to grab the top of the fence so he could scramble after her. Unfortunately, Connor was more tired than he thought he was. His hands slapped the wood a full six inches short of the top of the fence and he started to slide down. That was bad enough, but to make it worse, Connor watched in shock as his left glove snagged on a hidden nail and he slid down the fence bare handed. Connor could feel every splinter and chunk of wood as it dug its way into his supernaturally sensitive skin. The feeling in his hand was so strong that he didn’t even notice the pained scream that tore out of his throat.   
When Eerie returned, the witch temporarily forgotten in favor of her partner, he found him curled on the ground in a fetal position with his tail wrapped around him, clutching his injured hand.  
“Connor! What happened?” She exclaimed.   
The racoon looked up at her with tear in his eyes, trying and failing to joke through the pain, “The fence stole my glove.”   
Eerie’s eyes widened as she looked between him and his glove, still pinned to the fence by the traitorous nail. She never looked more like an owl than she did when she was shocked, her head flicked back and forth, taking in the whole alley, until her wide eyes finally settled on Connor, who was still huddled piteously on the ground.   
“Let’s get you to the hospital.” She smiled as if she had just said the sweetest thing in the whole world.   
Connor sat up, but he looked down. “I don’t wanna go…” he mumbled.  
“Why not?” Eerie said in surprise. Even the lowest whisper was no match for her hearing.   
Connor’s face turned hot. He couldn’t meet his partner’s wide eyes. “They laughed at me.”  
“Who?” It looked like Eerie was more than ready to kick the butt of whoever had dared to laugh at her partner. Connor took a deep breath, still stubbornly refusing to look at anything besides the ground.  
“They don’t mean to,” the steadiness of his own voice surprised him, the bitterness did not, “But in walks a supposedly hardened detective who spends his days chasing down ghosts, witches, and goblins, but cries and screams the minute anyone touches his hands.” Connor whimpered, “I hate this stupid curse.”  
Eerie looked at him with a mixture of surprise and pity. She had never heard her partner so embarrassed, so … broken. Sure, Eerie was familiar with curse induced embarrassment, like when she swiveled her head all the way around on the train, then realized everyone is staring. Or the time there was a rat in her apartment and, well…. She knew she was never telling anyone about that one. But she had never seen those same emotions in Connor. The closest was when he looked mildly chagrined about having to pay for the plate at a restaurant because he had gone ahead and eaten that along with the food, but that didn’t even come close to the torrent of emotion that she saw in her partner today. Conner was still on the ground clutching his hand. Eerie could tell that he was trying not to whimper, that he was embarrassed by his pain, but Eerie could still hear him. She couldn’t make him go to the hospital. Even if the hospital staff didn’t mean to embarrass him, there was no way that they could understand the quirks and trials of being a cursed person. No one could understand besides another cursed. Eerie cared about her partner too much to put him in a situation that would make him even more ashamed, but she also cared about him too much to let him keep suffering.  
“I could take them out for you.”  
For the first time since he’d screamed, Connor looked at his partner. His eyes were still clogged with tears, so she was a little blurry, but he could still see the soft expression on her face. He wasn’t used to that. Normally she was so strong and fierce, he’d never seen her care so much, if that was even the right word for the expression that painted itself across her face. He didn’t know what else to do, so he nodded. Eerie smiled.   
“Let’s go then,” She helped him stand, then grabbed his glove from the fence and handed it to him, “Your house is near here, right? Do you have any medical supplies at home?” Connor nodded. He had added quite a few medical supplies to his collection of objects over the past few months. He knew that Eerie would kill him if he wasn’t taking good care of himself.   
Finally left the alley together.   
\\\  
“OW!!” Connor stared at his palm in abject horror as Eerie gently attacked it with tweezers.  
“Sit still Connor!” Eerie was beginning to have sympathy for the doctors who had helped her partner before. He was a baby when it came to his hands, even if it wasn’t his fault. She sighed. “It’s only going to hurt more if you keep jerking away.   
“I can’t help it.” Connor was crying, “I see the tweezers and I know it’s gonna hurt and I…” Connor decided that his shoes were a better point of focus than his partner, “I’m sorry.”  
Eerie thought for a moment. They could do this. After all, it wasn’t so different from the challenges that they came across every day. They just needed a strategy.   
“Well,” Eerie said hesitantly, “If looking at the tweezers makes you queasy, just don’t look,”   
“What?” Connor said, “Like a blindfold?” he hesitated, “I think that would make me even more insecure.”  
“Ok then, back to the drawing board, I guess.”   
“Wait!” The racoon’s eyes danced behind his tears, his brain working faster than his mouth, leaving Eerie in the dust. “Yeah, I think that’ll work.”   
They had been sitting on the couch in his neat, if somewhat cluttered apartment. Connor stood and started using his good hand to carefully remove a variety of collected objects from the coffee table in the center of the room. When it was clear, he sat down on the edge and gestured for his partner to come join him.   
“If we sit back to back like this,” he turned his back to Eerie and braced himself against her, “I won’t have to look.”  
Eerie smiled at her partner’s ingenuity and reached behind her to grab her partner’s hand. He pulled back a little at the skin to skin contact but let her put his hand in her lap anyway. It occurred to Eerie that this was the first time she had ever actually touched Connor’s hand. She grabbed her tweezers and started removing the splinters as gently as she could. Her smile faded into a look of concentration when she heard Connor yelp, but he didn’t pull away like he had before.  
They sat like that for an hour, back to back, Eerie concentrating and Connor trying not to cry. He gave up the pretense after the first ten minutes and by the end was letting his tears flow freely. Eerie was simultaneously the best and the worst person to see him like this. She was the best because he saw her every day and she understood being cursed better than anyone. She was the worst because he saw her every day and he was going to have to face her knowing that he had broken down and cried like a baby in front of her. He was supposed to be better than this, dang it.  
Finally, Eerie stood up.   
“Are you done?” Connor asked, hope in his voice.  
“Almost” Eerie replied. Connor’s ears drooped.   
Eerie rummaged around in the box of medical supplies for a moment before coming back with a bottle of clear liquid and some cotton balls.   
“What are you going to do?” Connor curled in on himself in a defensive stance, wrapping his tail protectively in front of his hands. He suddenly looked even more like a threatened racoon.   
“I just need to make sure it doesn’t get infected Connor.” Eerie said, motioning for him to turn back around.   
Even though Connor knew it was coming, or perhaps because he knew it was coming, Connor screeched when the alcohol hit his palm.   
\\\  
The Disney movie was largely ignored by the two detectives as they snuggled deeper into the blanket fort that Connor called his bed. He had his head on Eerie’s lap and, if he hadn’t fallen asleep already, he would soon. Eerie smiled down at him, noticing how he still protected his injured hand, even now that all the splinters were gone. She gently started playing with his hair which was as wild as ever. He must not have been completely awake because he shifted under her hand and looked up at her. Her owl eyes were wide in the half darkness and he stared at them for a long moment.  
“Thank you.”  
Eerie smiled and began playing with his hair again, “What are partners for?”


End file.
